Learn How To Play Piano

by andyi

The piano is an vital musical instrument for jazz bands since the origin of jazz music and it can be played in the style of a solo performance or as part of a band. Like the guitar, the piano is one of the few musical instruments in a jazz band which can play chords as well as clarification instead just single clarification only instruments such as the saxophone, trombone, trumpet or even the vibraphone (1 or 2 clarification together).

Gone were the days when a jazz pianist’s role is just to keep tempo with repetitive chord combinations. Nowadays, the pianist is free to choose any technique or style to accompany a band or a singer using both small and sustained chordal and melodic fragments called comping.

An accomplshed jazz pianist must not only be excellent at sight-reading as well as excellent at improvising chord symbols but also must be able to adapt to the different playing styles of various bands he jams with. Jazz pianists must balance this interpretation and improvisation to the musical style the bands are playing.

The jazz pianist is to be sure a pleased musician because of the extended range of the piano. The piano offers the pianist with a much greater digit of choices and techniques for improvisation, much more so than any other instruments in a jazz band.

In a jazz musical style renowned as “striding”, the left hand of the pianist alternates positions very quickly playing clarification in the bass register and chords in the tenor register. The right hand will usually play the melody, but might also play harmonic content, chordally or even in octaves.

Jazz pianists play the solo with 3 basic objectives to fulfill simultaneously. The techniques are as follows :-

a) To provide a clear and swinging rhythm. This style is usually done by arresting a beat with the right hand just after a weaker beat with the left hand. The objective of this technique is to mimic the amalgamation of a cymbal ride as well as the walking bass. This technique can also be executed deftly with the left hand alone, by imitating the weaker beat preparatory swing note that is played by a bassist just before he strikes some of the clarification of the bass phrasing.

b) Play the melody or solo improvisation with the right hand.

c) Establish the guide tones for chord changes.

One method commonly used by jazz pianists for tackling this triple situation simultaneously is to hold the hands together in a fork-like shape with the index and the third finger joining the thumbs to form a central assemble, whilst the fourth and fifth fingers are spread outwards.

This is done so that the pianist can use the left branch fingers to play bass clarification, the middle fingers to moderate the guide tones and the right branch fingers to play the upper lines of the melody.

It is to be sure challenging for the pianist to meet all these demands at the simultaneously. But these skills are inherent in most competent jazz pianists.

What is commonly called the ‘circle of fifths’ is also an vital constituent in playing jazz piano because it provides harmonic diversity through a well guided harmonic phrase. Playing the circle of fifths technique is very much related to chord “planing” techniques which shift a chord, often voiced in fourths, up the scale, while implying a repeated harmonic pattern of tonic-dominant-tonic-dominant.

If you intend to be a excellent at playing jazz piano, then mastering these styles and techniques is a required skill.

Hey, in this video I am going to show you how to play a bit of Jazz. I apologise sincerely for accidently having my piano transposed. I didn’t know it was in the incorrect key untill after I recorded the video. I hope the video is still helpful in some way. Ben Video Rating: 4 / 5

by andyi

Answer by Santino
! if you know where your clarification are, and your basic scales, then the next step is to get a book about jazz theory.once you can play basic chord progressions, try and identify a song that has them and transcribe, or play what they are playing and he next time that chord or progression comes up you will be able to play that lick! you can embelish it or what ever, if you want to completely improvise yourself , start with playing the root 3rd 5th and 7th of each chord/triads – if you dont know what that is, you betta gather! like i said a bassic lesson in theory or a begginer jazz theory book would help a lot.